The importance of Creativity
Keith Walters, 1st Vice-Chairman of the EDUC Commission, Committee of the Regions, and Member of the Cambridgeshire County Council, UK

"Creativity and innovation, in particular, play an important role in local and regional development. They stimulate trade and industry, the economy and employment in both urban and rural areas and help to curb rural depopulation by providing a livelihood. Europe's creativity potential must be harnessed in a way to support the local economy.
We would like to see more networks that bring together local talents, industry professionals, cultural associations and other stakeholders in our different regions in order to facilitate the exchange of best practice and experiences. It should also help creative talents to find ways to develop companies around the creative results they produce.

In our opinion on the European Year of Creativity and Innovation (2009), we highlighted that Europe's creative potential is the key to meeting the Lisbon objectives and thus to becoming the world's most innovative, knowledge-based economy. Early, pre-school learning and primary education have a particular importance for the development of basic competences. In the European cities and regions and at regional level, culture, creativity and innovation are the key sources of growth, investment and new jobs. The initiative makes an ideal follow-on to the Year of Intercultural Dialogue but we drew attention to the absence of any specific funding for the Year."

Excerpt from his keynote speech at La Rencontre du Lazio, 20 November 2009.

Grainne Millar on Free access to museums and monuments. Answers to our Questionnaire for La Rencontre de Liverpool.
Structure Organisation Temple Bar Cultural Trust [ non profit company focused on cultural development]

1- What is your appreciation of the question of free access to museums and monuments?

Free access to museums and monuments is about creating opportunities for people of all ages and from all social and economic backgrounds to freely participate in the cultural life of a place. Free access is not just about removing the financial admission charge  - it is about removing perceived obstacles that prevent people from freely participating in cultural life such as issues relating to opening hours of the cultural spaces, outreach and educational initiatives that work with community groups, disadvantaged groups, active-retired groups and schools groups to break down barriers, remove the idea of culture as "elitist" and free access is also about encouraging people to express themselves through arts and culture.

2- Has your city taken a decision on this matter?

In Dublin, we have a combination of National Cultural Institutions which are the responsibility of Central Government, civic cultural spaces which belong to the City Council/Local Government  and a number of other cultural spaces, which are owned privately or held in Trust eg Temple Bar Cultural Trust owns 14 Cultural Venues in Temple Bar which are funded by The Arts Council.
There is no entrance fee into museums and monuments except on rare occasions where the National Gallery may have a major international touring exhibition or if the venue operates as a commercial tourist attraction.

Most of these cultural institutions would have education and outreach officers aimed at developing audience participation.

One of the big issues in Dublin however, relates to the opening hours of our cultural institutions, the majority of which are closed on Mondays and most of which close at 6pm every evening.

On Friday 19th September 2007, Temple Bar Cultural Trust launched Dublin's 2nd Culture Night which brought together 82 of the city's cultural organisations ranging from the National Cultural Institutions, Temple Bar's Cultural Quarter, Dublin City Civic Museums and Libraries, Galleries, and Cathedrals, who all extended their opening times until 10pm in a major cultural initiative designed to provide unlimited public access to the cultural institutions of Dublin.

The main impetus behind Culture Night was to raise awareness and increase the visibility of the arts and cultural life of the city and provide a new and imaginative route that would open up the city's Cultural institutions to thousands more people providing everyone, regardless of age gender or background, with the opportunity to share in and benefit from the vibrant cultural life of the City.

One other key issue that Culture Night set out to establish was the extent to which the  limited opening hours, restrict and prevent people from getting easy access to and enjoyment from the arts and culture in our Capital.  

The impact of this was extraordinary. In the space of 5 hours 60,000 people visited the city centre to visit and participate in the enormous range of cultural facilities that were open on the night. Attendances records reached an all time high as 5000 people visited the Book of Kells; 2500 at The National Gallery; 2000 at the Hugh Lane Gallery, 3500 at Christchurch Cathedral with workshops, tours and talks completely over-subscribed with many organisations having to turn people away. What was particularly striking about the night was the number of families and senior citizens/active retired visiting these cultural spaces providing a truly different social experience for the family on a Friday night.


In September 2007.  The Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism Seamus Breannan announced that he wanted to build on the success of Dublin Culture Night and introduce more flexible late night opening hours of the cultural institutions and Temple Bar Cultural Trust submitted a report outlining recommendations on how this should be done.

3- If this policy applies in your city or region please can you tell us when the decision was taken? What effects have been observed (diversification of the public, increase in visits...)? Do you think that such a measure should be extended to the national or European level ?

The report submitted to the Department of Arts, Sports and Tourism in relation to extended opening hours was based on research commissioned for Culture Night which provided invaluable insights into public behavior and attitudes towards visiting cultural facilities in the city. The research also provides insights into the profile of visitors who attended Culture Night and who would be the likely target audience in the promotion of late night opening hours campaign. Top lines results show:

• An overwhelming 89% of visitors said that they would visit cultural organisations more frequently if opening hours were extended and more flexibility was introduced.

• 99% of respondents who attended Culture Night said they would recommend the event to relatives and friends reflecting a very positive attitude towards Dublin Culture Night and the cultural facilities on the city.

• 97% of people surveyed confirmed that they would attend Culture Night in the future strongly indicating an enthusiasm and appetite for enhanced and more flexible access to the cultural services of the city.

• Over half of the respondents (64%) said it was their first visit to the cultural venue where they completed the survey. This shows that late night opening through Culture Night provided a fantastic opportunity for participating venues to attract first-time visitors.

• 97% of visitors confirmed that they would recommend the cultural venue to relative and friends highlighting their positive "cultural" experience and the potential for positive word of mouth.

• The age profile of people attending Culture Night is strongly grouped in the 18-44 year age bracket [71%] with 21% of people aged between 45-64.